The HRA view
HERITAGE RAILWAY ASSOCIATION CHIEF EXEC STEVE OATES TACKLES STEAM’S BURNING ISSUES
IT’S OFTEN really hard to find a balance between the positive and the negative.
And it’s probably even harder right now when positive news in the wider world is scarce. The concept that tomorrow can be better than today seems genuinely controversial like never before.
In the heritage rail world, that battle is real. In many ways, we face storm clouds like never before; but it’d be dangerous if those clouds were allowed to obscure the positive things that are still happening throughout our sector.
The peak of the Covid pandemic might seem like a long time ago, but we’re absolutely still in the midst of recovery from it. Take a look at anyone who works in the wider visitor economy or heritage sector and they’ll tell you the same thing.
The latest to do so is an organisation called the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions. It’s a trade body that represents most of the really big boys in the visitor economy; the ones with the biggest attendances (and normally biggest marketing budgets). Their headline figure is that even after a stonking 19% year-on-year increase (2022 to 2023), visitor numbers are still 11% down on pre-pandemic numbers.
Imagine how much hard work must have gone into that increase at each of the individual venues. The effort and spend to reach new visitors and persuade existing ones to come back… the special events, the marketing initiatives, the PR – and then managing them when they’re on site.
If I was working at one of those venues I’d be over the moon… only to be reminded that I was still 11% down on 2019! It’s a bitter pill to swallow. Now transfer that to heritage rail…
We know we mustn’t be complacent and railways are rethinking, reshaping, and re-financing like never before.
But, thankfully, we’re not solely about percentages. There’s still plenty of great stuff going on.
Take a look at what the Vale of Rheidol Railway is achieving in Aberystwyth. A fully fledged museum bringing parts of local railway heritage back to the area for the first time in a generation (like the ‘Dukedog’) and thrus
